University of Central Florida STARS 2020-2021 Afrofuturism Syllabus - Week 20 - "A Past Unremembered: The Transformative ZORA! Festival Academic Conference: Legacy of the Black Speculative Imagination" 2020-2021 Afrofuturism Syllabus Exhibit 2021 "A Past Unremembered: The Transformative Legacy of the Black Speculative Imagination" Exhibition Catalog Julian Chambliss Michigan State University Phillip Cunningham Wake Forest University Part of the African American Studies Commons, Africana Studies Commons, American Literature Commons, Digital Humanities Commons, and the Museum Studies Commons Find similar works at: https://stars.library.ucf.edu/afrofuturism_syllabus_20 University of Central Florida Libraries http://library.ucf.edu This Document is brought to you for free and open access by the ZORA! Festival Academic Conference: 2020-2021 Afrofuturism Syllabus at STARS. 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STARS Citation Chambliss, Julian and Cunningham, Phillip, ""A Past Unremembered: The Transformative Legacy of the Black Speculative Imagination" Exhibition Catalog" (2021). 2020-2021 Afrofuturism Syllabus - Week 20 - "A Past Unremembered: The Transformative Legacy of the Black Speculative Imagination" Exhibit. 1. https://stars.library.ucf.edu/afrofuturism_syllabus_20/1 A Past Unremembered: A BLACK SPECULATIVE ODYSSEY Afrofuturism: MAPPING THE SONIC IMAGINATION Probably the most significant collector and interpreter of Southern African American culture, Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960), writer, folklorist, anthro- pologist, has since the 1970s enjoyed a revial of interest, due in large part to “disciples” such as Alice Walker, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Color Purple, and her biographers, Robert Hemenway (Zora Neale Hurston, A Literary Biography) and Valerie Boyd (Wrapped in Rainbows) A woman of great intensity and charisma, and single-minded in her pursuit of collecting material on “the Negro farthest down,” has secured her place among those who have painted the 20th century America’s cultural landscape. She refused simply to record the ways of her people and thereby condemn her “studies” to dusty library shelves where only researchers would consider them. Rather, Zora used her creative genius to bring the unique and wonderful culture of African Americans to mainstream America via captivating novels, short stories and dramatic presentations. The woman from Eatonville, Florida, has captured the attention of a worldwide audience with her interpretation of African American culture as a part of the human saga. This space, the Zora Neale Hurston National Museum of Fine Arts (The Hurston) is named in honor of Historic Eatonville’s most famous resident. The Mission of The Hurston: Established in 1990, The Hurston’s mission is to provide a place “in the heart of the community”where the public can view the work of artists of African ancestry, who live in the United States or throughout the Diaspora. MUSEUM SPONSOR Incorporated in 1988 as a non-profit/tax exempt historic preservation organization, the Association to Preserve the Eatonville Community, Inc. (P.E.C.) presents a year-round, multidisciplinary arts and humanities program. P.E.C.’s mission is to enhance the considerable cultural resources of Eatonville, Florida, which is “the oldest incorporated African American municipality in the United States” and the hometown of writer, folklorist, and anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston; to educate the public about Eatonville’s historic and cultural significance; and to use the community’s heritage and cultural vibrancy for its economic development. 2021 | 1 Copyright 2021 Association to Preserve the Eatonville Community, Inc. A Past Unremembered: All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced A BLACK without the prior written permission of the Association to Preserve the SPECULATIVE Eatonville Community. ODYSSEY This publication is the catalog to the exhibition A Past Unremembered: & A Black Speculative Odyssey & Afrofuturism: Mapping the Sonic Imagination, held at the Zora Neale Hurston National Museum of Fine Arts, Afrofuturism: January 9 - December 31, 2021. Curated by Julian C. Chambliss, Ph.D. MAPPING THE and Phillip Cunningham, Ph.D., SONIC IMAGINATION this joint exhibition celebrates, in part, the 2020 - 2024 Seventh Cycle of the annual Zora Neale Hurston Festival of the Arts and Humanities (ZORA! Festival), which explores Afrofuturism. Funding for this exhibition catalog has been provided by Orange County Curated by Julian C. Chambliss, Ph.D. Government through the Arts & and Phillip L. Cunningham, Ph.D. Cultural Affairs Program and by the University of Central Florida - Zora Neale Hurston National Museum of Fine Arts College of Arts and Humanities. Association to Preserve the Eatonville Community, Inc. Printing of this catalog has been provided as an in-kind contribution Eatonville, Florida by Orlando Utilities Commission. 2021 2 | 2021 2021 | 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS WHY AFROFUTURISM? Julian Chambliss, Ph.D. In this space, I am pleased to recognize the support, without which, this exhibition and catalog could not have been produced. A Past Unremembered: A Black Speculative In his definitional essay “Afrofuturism 2.0 & The Black Speculative Odyssey & Afrofuturism: Mapping the Sonic Imagination is emblematic of the finest Arts Movement: Notes on a Manifesto,” Dr. Reynaldo Anderson wrote of collaborative endeavor. A brilliant concept, fueled by intellectual and creative “embryonic movement examining the overlap between race, art, science, energy, provides the public with an understanding of and an appreciation for and design has been stirring and growing” into a global movement. “. movement examining the overlap between race, art, science, and design . .” What today is recognized as Afrofuturism has roots in a broader global (Dr. Reynaldo Anderson, Afrofuturism 2.0 & The Black Speculative Arts Movement: history of blackness ignored in the western context and particular roots in Notes on a Manifesto) African American liberatory experience. Thus, Afrofuturism has sparked At the Spring 2018 meeting of the ZORA!® Festival National Planners, the time during discussion across academic disciplines as an epistemological tool to which distinguished scholars and cultural artists gather to discuss and determine challenge systemic antiblackness inherent to western knowledge creation the long-range and annual programming for the Zora Neale Hurston® Festival even as popular expression celebrates contemporary cultural events such of the Arts and Humanities (ZORA!Festival), Dr. Julian Chambliss advocated for as Marvel’s Black Panther (2018). As an epistemological tool, Afrofuturism a cycle-long exploration of Afrofuturism. Happily, the consensus was to devote calls our attention to how colonial belief and practice designed to facilitate the Seventh Cycle of ZORA! Festivals, 2020 - 2024, to Afrofuturism and to ask imperial exploitation in the Age of Discovery continues to shape our Dr. Chambliss to serve as the curator for the entire five years, a first-time world. Contemporary scholars talking about and acting on the ideas of recommendation I made to the Board of Directors and which it approved. Afrofuturism are merely continuing a theoretical practice geared toward Dr. Chambliss has continued to be a driving intellectual and creative force; and joining dismantling the ideology of oppression. him, Dr. Cunningham has quickly become a member of “The P.E.C. Family,” The current intellectual activism linked to Afrofuturism is a challenge to committing his time to public humanities programs which help to expand the reach of The Hurston®. our established notion of knowledge production and dissemination. As contemporary scholars engage in this work, a complex process of recovery Prof. Trent Tomengo, Dr. Clarissa West-White, and Alice Grant have each made that recognizes the legacy of black knowledge within black culture exists essential contributions to this undertaking. Serving as consultant, Prof. Tomengo and can be found by examining everyday practice and discovery which has brought to us important “on-the-ground” expertise. Dr. West-White, considers how a framework centered on African Diaspora practice offers representing the finest traditions of the librarian-scholar, has developed a gift to new ways to understand science, aesthetic, philosophy and gender is taking anyone who wishes to learn more about Afrofuturism. And my esteemed, decades- place. Inherent to Afrofuturism’s critique of the colonial power structure long colleague, Alice Grant, has been generous in loaning her considerable expertise as copy editor. that defines modernity is a recognition of how black thought and action has been demonized and marginalized. In the U.S. context, this knowledge Of course, no project can go forward without funding. To Orange County Government, persists within black communal spaces but often lies outside white- through the Arts & Cultural Affairs Program, and to the University of Central Florida, controlled institutions. Current scholarly production seeks to remedy College of Arts and Humanities, we are indebted. Moreover, I must acknowledge this inequity. Thus, scholars such as Dr. Kinitra Brooks, who champions the strong support of Executive Associate Dean Lyman Brodie, whose keen insight a consideration